Case: Eastman Kodak 2006

2006

1971

THE STORY

This paragraph was in a news release about CEO Antonio Perez's speech at the Las Vegas electronics show, under the heading "Updated Kodak Brand Mark:"

"Perez also unveiled the latest evolution of Kodak's brand logo. This new look moves the Kodak name out of the traditional yellow box, giving it a more contemporary design, a streamlined rounded look and distinctive letters. This introduction is the latest step in the company's broad brand transformation effort, which reflects the multi-industry, digital imaging leader Kodak has become."

Another source reported that "This 'Brand Transformation' project appears to have originated from the long term relationship with Ogilvy. Clear tangible guidelines never seemed to materialize but there were plenty of interim guidelines that came in the form of vague short paged pdfs; each progressively spoke in more detail about a new visual style." The source noted that "Kodak is a traditionally slow moving organization with large marketing and communication divisions."

Ogilvy's Brian Collins confirms that his BIG group has worked with Kodak for years, and last year was commissioned to develop a consumer brand identity strategy and visual system. The new mark is his team's work.

In an internal January 9 memo, CMO Carl Gustin recognized the need now to move a little faster: "We are working quickly to update our guidelines, policies and practices. This is a major change with a lot of work yet to be done. We chose to reveal the wordmark without the completed 'rulebook' because it was ready and it was time to go!"

The new mark was first shown between two yellow bars. These are not considered by the designers to be integral to the logo. The visual systems that BIG and Lippincott Mercer would next design will reportedly provide a variety of ways Kodak can continue to use yellow, adjacent to (but not behind) the red wordmark, in media it controls. Tony Spaeth